“The number of seriously ill patients in the 40-to-early 60s age range is increasing, so it is necessary to speed up vaccinations. If this generation gets vaccinated, then the younger generations, which include their children, will be more willing to get the vaccine.”
Public prosecutors demanded a prison term of seven years on Thursday for a 90-year-old former senior Japanese government official over a high-profile fatal runaway car accident in Tokyo in 2019.
S2, a Japanese server company, said Friday it will launch an elderly professional e-sports team, the first of its kind in Japan. The members of the team will all be residents of Akita Prefecture, northeastern Japan, aged 65 or older. They will be called Matagi Snipers, after “matagi” Japanese traditional hunters.
All 1,741 municipalities in the country expect to complete inoculating residents aged 65 and older by the end of next month, said the sources who reviewed a government survey on the matter.
A survey found that four cities — including Sakai, Osaka Prefecture — have administered a first shot to over 50% of their populations, while another 14 cities — including Yamaguchi — have cleared the 40% threshold. Rounding out the bottom of the list were 15 municipalities where fewer than 20% of elderly residents had received their first shot.
COVID-19 vaccinations for residents of Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures aged 65 or over began Monday at the Osaka mass vaccination site operated by Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, a move that brought the number of prefectures covered by SDF-run vaccination venues to seven.
A private-sector survey has shown that 63 pct of the elderly prefer using the telephone to book their COVID-19 vaccinations while 37 pct like the internet and the Line messaging app better.
On May 25, Fukushima Prefecture held an online training session on countermeasures against the new coronavirus for employees of facilities for the elderly and disabled. The purpose was to prevent the outbreak of clusters. This is the first time that a prefectural government has held a training session for elderly welfare facilities and support facilities for the disabled.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged Monday to speed up the vaccination of the country’s elderly population against the novel coronavirus, which began in earnest on the day.
The mayor of Aomori City, Akihiko Onodera, has instructed that vaccinations facilities for people with disabilities and child welfare facilities be expedited in parallel with vaccinations for elderly people’s facilities.
